Chilling Out, Cable Style: Movies On Demand Lounge at Comic-Con

Last week, we ditched office life and rather than just blogging about it, spent some time in the entertainment mix at Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA.  What sent us to the biggest popular arts convention in the world?  An appreciation of comic book aesthetics… and our Movies On Demand Lounge.

Our Movies On Demand lounge was a pop-up space in the nearby Hard Rock Hotel where convention goers could take a time out from the wildly-costumed masses that descend on Comic-Con each year.  Guests dropped by our lounge to check their e-mail, grab a beverage and recharge their batteries.

In addition to relaxing, loungers were invited to enjoy our green screen photo booth.  This photo booth offered visitors a chance to select a background  from their favorite movie, superimpose that image onto a green screen and take a snapshot in front of the background as though they were in the movie.  After mugging for their faux film cameo, visitors could enter for a chance to win a daily giveaway which featured an HDTV and collectible comic book posters as prizes.

What really gave our Movies On Demand lounge cool cred, however, were the celebrities that we invited as our special guests, including:

• actor Jason Momoa (Conan the Barbarian 3D, Game of Thrones)
• filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats)
• film critic and historian Leonard Maltin
• Psyche’s Dulé Hill and James Roday
• actress Piper Perabo and the cast of Covert Affairs
• actress-singer Imogen Poots
• Fright Night director Craig Gillespie

Professionally speaking, it was amazing to see convention goers — many of whom were our customers –  connecting with top stars from film, TV and music right in our booth.  Personally speaking, meeting Kevin Smith and hearing him speak was the highlight of my work trip, a moment that brought me back to my middle school mall days of blowing my allowance at Wet Seal and the Orange Julius stand.

The fanboys and anime aficionados at Comic-Con may have packed up and headed back to their graphic novel-crammed basements, but the the soul of the convention lives on.   If you missed out on Comic-Con, you can still catch some of the action:

1)  Time Warner Cable digital customers can check out our new “Comic Book Heroes” On Demand category on our Movies On Demand channel.  Available through August 15, this category offers nearly twenty comic-inspired films, like Superman, The Dark Night and X-Men, as well as exclusive programming from Comic-Con.

2) Enter our “Geekstakes” for a chance to win a trip for two to the 43rd annual Comic-Con in 2012

3) Live in the New York City metro area?  Stop by the upcoming New York Comic-Con from October 13 through October 16

Categories: Cool Stuff, On Demand, What's New